Republicans know more than Democrats, says study. At least GOPers do when it comes to politics, according to survey results released earlier this month by the Pew Research Center. As the report notes:
Republicans fare substantially better than Democrats on several questions in the survey, as is typically the case in surveys about political knowledge. The largest gaps are in awareness of which party is more supportive of reducing the size and scope of the federal government (30 points) and which party is more conservative (28 points).
Republicans also are 21 percentage points more likely than Democrats to know that the GOP is more supportive of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
There is only one policy question – which party is more supportive of cutting defense spending – on which Democrats are more knowledgeable than Republicans. Two-thirds of Democrats (67%) identify the Democratic Party as being more supportive of reducing the size of the defense budget, compared with 59% of Republicans.
Delving further into the report, the survey reports that men do better on every question than do women. The Daily Caller also reports:
"The Pew survey adds to a wave of surveys and studies showing that GOP-sympathizers are better informed, more intellectually consistent, more open-minded, more empathetic and more receptive to criticism than their fellow Americans who support the Democratic Party."

The Pew survey adds to a wave of surveys and studies showing that GOP-sympathizers are better informed, more intellectually consistent, more open-minded, more empathetic and more receptive to criticism than their fellow Americans who support the Democratic Party.

The Pew survey adds to a wave of surveys and studies showing that GOP-sympathizers are better informed, more intellectually consistent, more open-minded, more empathetic and more receptive to criticism than their fellow Americans who support the Democratic Party

I'm really glad that I wasn't drinking something when I read that.
I suppose that the average Republican American might be like that, but their representatives up on Capital Hill are horribly off base then.

Also, how the fuck can people who don't know some of these things even call themselves a democrat or republican? Seriously, there were people who were polled that didn't know the republicans are a more conservative party? That makes me seriously question the validity of this poll.

"The Pew survey adds to a wave of surveys and studies showing that GOP-sympathizers are better informed, more intellectually consistent, more open-minded, more empathetic and more receptive to criticism than their fellow Americans who support the Democratic Party."

I won't argue all of it, but more open minded? More empathetic? These are the people who want to shape government after their own views at the cost of other people's rights.

That's some excerpt from the Daily Caller, I don't know how the Pew Research Center study has anything to do with that. I couldn't find a direct from the source report so Reason Magazine was the best I could get.

I took a look at the study, it means exactly what it says, politics. Most democrats are marginally less informed than republicans, on political questions that have very little relevance.

I like the study, and it's an interesting read, but it just reaffirms my previous belief that republicans vote against their own interests, and democrats are weak and don't care about the issues as much.

The largest gaps are in awareness of which party is more supportive of reducing the size and scope of the federal government (30 points) and which party is more conservative (28 points).

Only 71% (90% Republicans and 62% Democrats) of people apparently know the Republican party is more conservative. That seems pretty incredible. How can you even consider yourself part of either party if you can't say which is more conservative? (since this is understanding of members of either party)

They also cite things like knowing the parties of candidates in history, but my understanding is that the parties of today share little resemblance to the parties of the same name in the past, so it's sort of a fundamentally confused question.

There is only one policy question – which party is more supportive of cutting defense spending – on which Democrats are more knowledgeable than Republicans.

According to the results, this is false. They seem to know more on illegal immigration, taxes, and a few other things.

As per the specific and historic individual questions I mentioned, there's probably a large bias in this study in favor of the republicans who answered questions regarding two such candidates correctly far more often.

Only 71% (90% Republicans and 62% Democrats) of people apparently know the Republican party is more conservative. That seems pretty incredible. How can you even consider yourself part of either party if you can't say which is more conservative? (since this is understanding of members of either party)

(Thy Reaper)

Well, there are quite a few conservative democrats and blue-dogs. Unlike the republicans, the democrats are pretty mixed with moderates, conservatives and liberals, obviously more liberal than conservative.

Well, there are quite a few conservative democrats and blue-dogs. Unlike the republicans, the democrats are pretty mixed with moderates, conservatives and liberals, obviously more liberal than conservative.

It's not really the right question IMO.

That's true. I remember reading a large-scale study of people's political views, and democrats had a much bigger spread of ideals compared to republicans.

Two Three (I can't count) things that are consistently reliable about elderly folks: They are conservatives, they vote, and they care about politics enough to know about it and be informed. Young folk, generally liberals, are less inclined to be as informed about politics as they are ideology/political philosophy- something that conservatives aren't nearly as informed in.

Basically, conservatives are older and involved in the system, with less focus on other political views and more focus on the actual political process- they know the workings. Liberals are younger and less interested in the system, and more interested in ideology/political philosophy.

I don't agree at all with their conclusions, though. Regardless, there's no excuse for political ignorance.

There was a study done several months ago that showed Fox News viewers are more ill-informed than people who don't watch the news at all so these pitiful surveys taken of 100 people mean fuck all even if they support my ideology.

clearly your prejudiced ideas of the opposing party to yours supports this statement, as you aren't very receptive to compared criticism regarding your party

his comment was perfectly justified, it wasn't even part of the study, it was just the article throwing in their own biased interpretation of the results

where in the study does it indicate any of this:

The Pew survey adds to a wave of surveys and studies showing that GOP-sympathizers are better informed, more intellectually consistent, more open-minded, more empathetic and more receptive to criticism than their fellow Americans who support the Democratic Party.

you'd have to be pretty retarded to not see how some things are objectively better than others

Guy, that's like saying "My subjective opinions are obviously more objective than yours."

Obviously there are some things which are objective, like killing people doesn't cause overpopulation and rape doesn't make people happy unless you're a rapist. But that doesn't exist in politics- it pretty much doesn't exist in ideology/political philosophy.

Unless you can actually back something up that clearly has no viable alternative (good luck), then there isn't anything 'objective' about politics at all.